


Deleted Scenes from the Greatest Fear of the Nightmare King

by allmagiccomeswithrice (bisaleth)



Series: The Yin and Yang of Fear and Fun [3]
Category: Guardians of Childhood & Related Fandoms, Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Romance sorta sometimes maybe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-03-31 21:26:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3993424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisaleth/pseuds/allmagiccomeswithrice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The things that happened off screen, were only loosely explained, or entirely skipped over in the fic "The Greatest Fear of the Nightmare King"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This scene would have taken place during chapter 22, but it took a different path.

_He begins heading toward the window of Jamie's room to get out, but I grab him by his hood and tug him back. "Stay put."_

_"_ You givin' me orders, now? When Bunny said this bandage looked like a collar, I guess he really wasn't kidding." _He says that, but he's not making to leave anymore, so I suppose it worked, for now. As long as he doesn't change his mind. Before he has a chance to, I touch the incoming thread of dream sand, infecting it with darkness before it even reaches Jamie's sleeping mind._

"Hey wait, is...uh, is Sandy okay with this? You did get permission, right?"

_I glare at him. As if I, the Great and Terrible Bogeyman, need permission to give a child a nightmare. Certainly not. We watch as the dream transforms itself, the dark grains coming together to create a small version of Jack. He's making ice and causing trouble, much like that day Jamie remembers so well on his sled, except instead of fun, it's scary. The little black dream version of Jamie nearly getting run over by several cars as dream Jack laughs._

_"Stop it! What're you trying to do? I told you forever ago that I don't wanna be feared!" Jack tries to scatter the dream by physically messing with the sand, but it just reforms itself immediately after. after He gives up in frustration and sighs, resigned.  After a moment, he looks to me and pats my arm in...affection._ "Look at you, got all your stuff back. Congrats. Look, it's not like I don't appreciate the thought, but I'd rather not have Jamie run away screaming the next time I see him, so if you could just, y'know..."

* * *

 

Giving Jamie a nightmare about me to try and get him to believe in me, when Pitch himself has no believers...it's almost sweet. As much as I definitely do not want Jamie to fear me, I get that Pitch is just trying to help, in his own way.

_"It's just a dream, Jack. He won't even remember what his nightmare was about once he wakes."_ Pitch puts his hand on my shoulder, giving me a very small smile that can hardly even be considered there as he nods his head toward the window. _"Leave something."_

I stare at Pitch. Is this really the same king of nightmares I fought not all that long ago? He seems so changed and I'd hardly noticed it until now. Comparatively, this guy is basically an overgrown fluff ball, with the way he's acting. Bandaging my neck, restoring belief...

_"If you don't leave something, I will just have to find a way to make the nightmare...last."_ His smile turns wicked as more darkness threatens to enter the sand and make it even darker than before. Yeah, definitely the same guy, there's no mistaking it. Without even looking away from Pitch or moving from my spot, I raise my staff, lightly tapping the window pane and spreading frost across the window.

"That gonna be enough?"

_"Hopefully."_

"Since when do you hope for anythi-"

_"Jack. Shh."_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone on fanfiction.net said in a review for chapter 23 "What if Pitch was standing in the shadows this whole time?!" and I may have gotten a little bit carried away with it.

_The intense, overwhelming fear of losing oneself sinks into my senses and it positively reeks of Jack._

_My nightmare, my own fear of Jack being that thing again, of him becoming trapped within his own mind, just as I was...I can't let it happen.  He wouldn't be fun anymore.  He would no longer be Jack, instead, nothing but a horrid reflection of my most miserable moments, animated into a current reality which I would be forced to either face or run from. I can't.  Something awful twists through my stomach at the thought and I am loathe to admit that it's the fear of losing Jack.  How could he have slipped past everything I've built and manage to become someone I'm this afraid to lose?_

_I never meant for this to happen._

_I sink through the shadows and toward Jack's fear until I'm hiding in a freezing cave, the darkness of it all surrounding and protecting me from the sight of the frost spirit who stands in one of many light patches where the dark, corrupt ice hasn't covered, allowing bits of sparkle to brighten his face._

_But it isn't his face that I notice first.  A single strip of black has made itself seen in his hair as the boy watches his own reflection in the ice._

_It's real, it's happening.  I can't stop it from happening.  What could I possibly do to prevent it at this point?_

"Hey, Pitch?  Little help, here?"  _Jack asks to the darkness.  For the smallest moment I think he knows I'm here, but he doesn't.  He looks too hopeless.  He's still calling out for me.  I need to answer._

_Wait.  Why do I need to answer?  He was the one who got angry and left, just like that time in Antarctica.  Why would I answer his loneliness and attempt to soothe him?  I wasn't supposed to get attached to him in the first place.  If he destroys himself in this way, why should I come to save him?  I don't save anyone, I'm the Bogeyman, the darkness, the shadow.  It was my fault he became corrupted by the darkness in the first place.  He was holding onto me._

_He picks up the black ribbon and feels it between his fingers.  It's special to him._

_He's better off dealing with all this on his own.  He's done that his entire life, why not now?  I can only make it worse.  I should go._

 "I'm stuck.  Pitch?  Hey!"

_But I can't.  I can't just leave him here._

"...Remember what you said in Antarctica?  Back when I hated you and you hated me, and it made sense? ...I could really use that whole 'family' thing right about now.  Or, anything.  I don't know.  Whatever.  I guess family doesn't really fit us.  Doesn't matter, though.  You can't hear me.  I know you can't hear me.  I can't stop talking to you as though you could, though.  Hah, at this point, it's probably better you don't."

_That offer has expired.  I don't need him for that anymore.  I made that offer because I wanted power, and joined the Guardians for that very same reason.  Now that I have it, I could...just discard him.  I can betray both him and the Guardians now, like I've been waiting to do all this time.  This is perfect.  This is what I wanted._

_This is exactly what I was going to do.  I have enough power now to separate myself from him and from the rest of those ridiculous goons.  I can just go, and be better off for it._

"I just-....don't know what's happening to me.  I'm sorry about before.  I'm still angry that you brought me to Jamie." _He throws out an empty laugh._ "I also justlovedbeing shoved into a dark, endless pit of fear and despair and then ending up in the last place I wanted to be.  Just my favorite kind of transportation.  Pro tip though-  little warning next time."

_Just leave.  Leave.  Why can't I get myself to move?_

"Hah, just in case you were wondering, that was sarcasm.  North didn't get it last time I tried that on him."   _Jack waits for me to say something, but I can't.  This is my fault.  I have to go. I have to..._ "...But I get it, I think.  You were trying to get Jamie to believe in me, weren't you?  Trying to be helpful in the darkest, creepiest way that you can, in true Boogeyman fashion.  Way to go."

 _How long must I listen to this?  How long until my legs allow me to slip into the darkness and away from him?  I have to betray him.  I must.  I want the entire world to believe in me, and fear me, and I can't have that with the Guardians breathing down my neck.  Why can't I just detach?_ "Tell you what, if you show up here like right now, I swear I won't hit you for being a jerk and not even warning me about where you were taking me.  Really.  Promise."  _He laughs an empty laugh and it echoes throughout the icy cave._

"Pitch!  Damn it!  I just want outta here!"  _I reach out of the darkness for him as he hits his fists against the dark ice violently, not even making a single crack when he throws his entire weight against it.  I need to let him know I'm here, I need to...  
_

_No.  Blast it, I can't.  I retract my hand and return to my corner of shadows, not allowing him to notice I'd ever stepped out of the darkness to begin with.  Jack turns his back on the ice and slides down to the ground, hugging his knees like a frightened child._ "This is your fault, y'know.  Not the darkness, that's on me." _It isn't, though.  The fearlings were brought by me.  His voice is so quiet, I have to move to a closer area of shadows just to hear him._ "It's your fault I feel so horrible right now.  If you hadn't...I don't know."   _If I hadn't what?  What on Earth is he babbling about?_

"Maybe it really is my fault for feeling like this.  I'm so tired of being alone, but I don't want to be with the Guardians.  They're great and all, but they don't get it. They don't get me, and...you do." 

"...At least, I thought you did. I just want you to show up here and- yeah, is that cool?  Are we cool?"   _He begs into the darkness and although this is the most powerful I've been since the Guardians took me down, I feel entirely powerless.  I can't move to help him and I can't move to leave.  I'm caught in twilight._

 ~~~~ _Jack suddenly lets out a frightened_ _sob._ "Pitch...?"

"Do you care as much as I do?  Am I seriously going crazy?"

* * *

 

 _"Jack."_  Pitch calls out, his voice broken.


End file.
